The present invention relates to the recovery of liquid hydrocarbons from spills principally in marine environments, rivers or lakes. More particularly, the invention relates to an apparatus for collecting and separating liquid hydrocarbons from water in the event of an oil spill, and a system for employing such apparatus and storing the collected liquid hydrocarbons.
Oil spills cause severe environmental damage. As oil exploration, offshore drilling and oil production and crude oil shipping reach ever increasing magnitudes and ever more sensitive environments, rapid response to oil spills is of increasing importance. Rapid containment and recovery of a spill is critical to minimize environmental damage and cleanup costs. While numerous oil containment and recovery apparatus and systems have been developed, existing systems have insufficient capacity, require too much time to deploy, and are ineffective in adverse weather, rough seas or conditions of limited visibility such as fog or night-time.
A central element of any oil spill cleanup system is an apparatus for "skimming" and separating oil from the water. This is typically done using conventional weir or disc skimmers. However existing skimmers have too little capacity, are too slow and difficult to deploy to be effective particularly for large oil spills, and are limited in the environmental conditions under which they can operate effectively.